Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Every day I find web pages (usually through one of the "new ways") that I want to hold up to my friends and coworkers and say 'hey, this is good stuff' or 'have you seen this yet?' So, how do I do that?

There are several ways and the process has changed over the years and continues to change on at least a monthly basis. If I didn't adopt new methods of gathering information, I'd be left behind.Old way

E-mail a mailing list or group from my address book. I rarely if ever use this method any more. Occasionally, I'll email a link to one individual with a personal note - if I know they aren't using any of the newer and better methods.

New Ways (in no particular order)

Delicious - Easy to find in future if you ever need it. Categorized. Has replaced my browsers' bookmarks with browser plugins for MSIE and FF.

Friend Feed - Allows others to add their comments. Aggregates more then just web sites.

Twitter - Keep up with more than just links. Maintain relationships. A couple of my cohorts post an ITtip of the day (usually with a link) to ITTOTD.

Reading feeds with Google Reader and posting to blogs (here and here) - Adds more context and discussion than any of the other methods.

When I started writing this list I was identifying "advantages" of each, but as I wrote each advantage, I realized that almost every one of these advantages could be perceived as a disadvantage by some. To me, these are all advantages.

Today, I'm using Google Reader to keep up with most of the incoming information along with Twhirl to keep up with both Twitter and Friend Feed, which keeps up with my friend's Delicious, blogs, and more. I'm not convinced that this is the best way and am open to trying other methods.

I also use my iPod to keep up and really enjoy listening in my car (adapter plugs into the radio). But that's another blog post.

2 comments:

Leezl
said...

I use feedalizr (http://www.feedalizr.com) It is an Adobe Air app that runs on your desktop, you get updates from all you follow on Twitter, Friendfeed, Flickr Jaiku and more. It has filters and works really well for me.